In October 2006, the Communist Party of China unveiled a landmark new policy aimed at easing social and societal unrest in the country. The Chinese leadership would strive for a “harmonious society”, reaching this goal no later than 2020. As one of the final works for 16th Party Congress convened in 2002, it would stand as the template for how the 17th Party Congress would attempt to rule.

A year later, in October 2007, Communist Party leader Hu Jintao built further upon that foundation, stressing harmony if in the background of all the Party’s major initiatives. In many ways, he said, the Chinese were fortunate in being given the opportunity to address any issues from the position “of this new historical point.” Rapid economic expansion had radically transformed the country.

Economic strength increased substantially. The economy sustained steady and rapid growth. The GDP expanded by an annual average of over 10%. Economic performance improved significantly, national revenue rose markedly year by year, and prices were basically stable. Efforts to build a new socialist countryside yielded solid results, and development among regions became more balanced.

The key pieces of the harmonious society were to be democracy, rule of law, equality, and environmental stewardship.

Of the first, democracy, it was a particular point of emphasis in Hu’s speech opening the 17th Congress. China will “expand people’s democracy and ensure that they are masters of the country,” he said. Mentioning the word repeatedly, 60 times according to the Chinese embassy in the US, it would mean increasing transparency as well as “opposing or preventing arbitrary decision-making by an individual or a minority of people.”

For many of the poorest Chinese, there had been an upset in balance. On the one hand, rapid economic growth had presented them, as Hu referenced, with opportunities never before experienced in modern China. It had come with a cost, though, where quality of life was more and more uncertain. In his speech, the Communist Party Chairman observed:

Our economic growth is realized at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment. There remains an imbalance in development between urban and rural areas, among regions, and between the economy and society.

Harmony, then, was to be certain that economic growth would expand society’s progress along all lines, and that a stronger commitment to democracy would assure that those on the wrong end of China’s transformation would have more than a voice in achieving this melodious future.